Review of The Zone (2007) by Mike M — 10 Oct 2008

Generally taut and satisfying... Pla is here dramatising a thesis expounded in many recent Latin American films - that social mobility has slowed to such an extent that the only interactions possible between rich and poor take the form of criminal acts - and he's a rather more conciliatory filmmaker than Michael Haneke ("Hidden"): one of the questions being asked here is no more complex than "why can't we all just get along?".

Still, "La Zona" offers a claustrophobic sketch of a supposedly perfect city under siege, and some of the imagery (whistles being blown, doors permanently closed) suggests a timely allegory of self-regulation gone awry and privilege made vulnerable: it's either coincidence or the drollest of puns that the victim should go under the name Mercedes.